If you’ve been following along the DevCentral team’s journey toward F5 Certification, then you may be aware that we were in Chicago last week for F5’s Agility 2016 conference and took our 101 Application Delivery Fundamentals exam. I am happy to report that all of us, Jason, John, Chase and I, passed our exams. I gotta tell you, it’s a relief since I didn’t want to title this article, ‘Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad.’ Good song but wanted to avoid that.
Microsoft research aims to better utilise encrypted cloud data without privacy fears
(c)iStock.com/maxkabakov
In some instances, encryption is a double-edged sword: if data is encrypted in the cloud, it’s secure, but you can’t get access to it. Yet a new research paper presented by Microsoft may be the first step to changing it.
The paper examines the concept of secure data exchange (SDE), where the aim, as a blog post from Microsoft Research writer John Roach puts it, is to “unlock the full value of encrypted data by using the cloud itself to perform secure data trades between multiple willing parties in a way that provides users full control over how much information the exchange reveals.”
Microsoft gave a real-world example of their plan. For instance, imagine if a group of employees wanted to know where their salary ranks in relation to each other, but not wanting to reveal their salary to the rest of the group. A trusted colleague could hear each employee’s salary in confidence, calculate an average and then forget about it. Here, the cloud – as a ‘secure multiparty computation’ enabler – makes the latter redundant.
As a result, all of the computation is performed in the cloud and is encrypted in such a way that the cloud server does not know what is being computed. If all goes to plan, the cloud reveals the decrypted results to the interested parties and privacy and security are not compromised.
The research also examines the potential such an implementation could have on machine learning – for instance, in making progress in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to assess whether genetic variants have effects on certain diseases. The report authors note that the privacy fears of those who do not wish to participate in these projects would be assuaged, as well as making better use of the data generally – “full of potential but ultimately of little use to anyone but its owner,” as Roach writes.
“What we are trying to build is a mechanism by which you can say ‘Look, I am interested in your data, but I want to verify it is really what I need before I purchase it,’” said Ran Gilad-Bachrach, a researcher in Microsoft’s Cryptography Research group and co-author of the paper.
You can read the full paper (PDF) here.
Tracking the Megatrend of Cloud Computing | @CloudExpo #IoT #M2M #API #Cloud #BigData
There are seven key MegaTrends driving the future of enterprise IT. You can remember them all with the helpful mnemonic acronym CAMBRIC, which stands for Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Mobility, Big Data, Robotics, Internet of Things, CyberSecurity.
In this post we dive deeper into the first of these trends, Cloud Computing.
We succinctly describe Cloud Computing as the scalable delivery of computational resources. Models of cloud compute include public clouds, private clouds and blends in between. Architectures are in place now that leverage tiers of clouds that can exist in multiple sizes and locations, including homes, businesses and datacenters.
Intel digs deep into wallet to buy its way into AI game
Virtual reality may well have been capturing the imagination of the industry in recent months, but Intel’s $400 million of AI start-up Nervana highlights it’s not all fun and games, reports Telecoms.com.
Having set its position as a leader in the data centre market and then largely missed out on the smartphone revolution, it would appear Intel is determined not to miss out on the burgeoning IoT segment, with the Nervana purchase added more firepower to the company’s efforts. The acquisition also highlights the importance of artificial intelligence to the development of the technology industry.
“Intel is a company that powers the cloud and billions of smart, connected computing devices,” said Diane Bryant, GM of the Data Center Group at Intel. “Thanks to the pervasive reach of cloud computing, the ever decreasing cost of compute enabled by Moore’s Law, and the increasing availability of connectivity, these connected devices are generating millions of terabytes of data every single day. The ability to analyse and derive value from that data is one of the most exciting opportunities for us all. Central to that opportunity is artificial intelligence.”
The IoT revolution is coming whether we like it or not, and with it will come such vast amounts of data. Due to the volume, it will beyond comprehension for humans to develop insight from the information. Current data analytics tools and processes could be described (at best) as adequate, though this is before the surge in connected devices. Statista estimates the number of connected devices will grow from 18.2 billion in 2015, through to 50.2 billion in 2020. The devices themselves will also improve, increasing the amount of information which can be collected individually, which will lead to a tidal wave of data to be analysed.
If it is assumed to be immensely difficult or more likely impossible to analyse this data and turn it into actionable insight, what is the point in collecting it in the first place. This is the justification of artificial intelligence. Using such technologies to undertake more rudimentary decision making capabilities brought about through data analysis, or presenting insight to the more complex decisions to business leaders, is where the value of artificial intelligence will be felt. If cloud computing enables the IoT revolution, artificial intelligence will make sure it’s not a waste of time or money.
For a notable proportion of the population, AI is likened to Terminator or other such doomsday stories. But as Bryant notes below, the applications of AI will stretch throughout the life of a consumer, but perhaps more importantly, the business, manufacturing and services world.
“While artificial intelligence is often equated with great science fiction, it isn’t relegated to novels and movies,” said Bryant. “AI is all around us, from the commonplace (talk-to-text, photo tagging, and fraud detection) to the cutting edge (precision medicine, injury prediction, autonomous cars). Encompassing compute methods like advanced data analytics, computer vision, natural language processing and machine learning, artificial intelligence is transforming the way businesses operate and how people engage with the world.”
The acquisition does answer a question raised by Telecoms.com a couple of weeks ago. During early July, Intel announced a new initiative with BMW and Mobileye to drive forward the development of autonomous vehicles. The initiative showed potential, though should BMW are to supply the cars, Intel the chips and Mobileye the detection capabilities, have the body, the muscles and the eyes, but not the brain/AI to bring it all together. This Nervana acquisition in theory completes the circle and provides the intelligence aspect of the car.
Artificial intelligence has the potential to shape the technology industry moving forward, and it would appear this is a view which is shared by the major players. Google has acquired nine AI firms, including Deepmind for $625 million, Twitter has four major acquisitions, most recently Magic Pony for $150 million, Salesforce has acquired two AI start-ups already this year and Apple reported bought Turi for $200 million. The money being spent to gain the upper hand in this sub-sector is beginning to rival the early days of cloud computing.
CYOD: What is it and how is it different from BYOD?
The cloud revolution is delivering innovation to IT now more than ever. One of the challenges of this innovation is selecting whether to adopt a CYOD or BYOD policy. Bring your own device, or BYOD, allows employees to use their own devices to access office resources. According to Global Market Insights, the BYOD market is […]
The post CYOD: What is it and how is it different from BYOD? appeared first on Parallels Blog.
Google Acquires Orbitera
Google has recently announced the purchase of Orbitera, which will improve Google’s enterprise service sector and allows Google to become a stronger competitor against companies such as Amazon and Microsoft. While terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed, TechCrunch estimates that it closed for about $100 million.
Orbitera CEO Marcin Kurc will continue to operate the company as a separate entity and will continue to support existing customers. Orbitera’s technology will improve support of software vendors on Google’s Cloud Platform.
This acquisition marks a great addition to Google, as Orbitera has already launched upwards of 60,000 enterprise stacks, including Adobe and Oracle. Orbitera focuses on four parts of constructing cloud marketplaces: billing and cost optimization, marketplace and catalogs, packaging and provisioning, and trials and lead management. This acquisition also improves Google in terms of personnel and perspective, as CEO Marcin Kurc had previously worked at Amazon Web Services.
About Orbitera:
Based in West Hollywood, California, Orbitera was co-founded in 2011 by Firas Bushnaq and Brian Singer and had accumulated $2 million in venture funding. The company was founded with the thought of breaking the mold in which enterprise software is sold and bought by making this process easier, and thus the Orbitera Cloud Commerce Platform was created. Since establishment, Orbitera has launched upward of 60,000 enterprise stacks.
Comments:
Nan Boden, Google’s head of global technology partners: “Orbitera has built a strong ecosystem of enterprise software vendors delivering software to multiple clouds. This acquisition is not only meant to improve the support of software vendors on Google Cloud Platform, but it also aims to reinforce Google’s support for the multi-cloud world.”
Boden: “The current model for the deploying, managing and billing of cloud-based software does not easily fit the way today’s modern enterprises operate. Orbitera automates many of the processes associated with billing, packaging and pricing optimization for leading businesses and ISVs (independent software vendors) supporting customers running in the cloud. More than 60,000 enterprise stacks have been launched on Orbitera.”
Orbitera CEO Marcin Kurc: “When we first started Orbitera, our mission was to enable frictionless sales of cloud-based enterprise software and services. Becoming part of the Google Cloud Platform team allows us to continue and accelerate toward this goal…. We will continue to deliver the products and services our customers rely on with the added scale that Google provides.”
The post Google Acquires Orbitera appeared first on Cloud News Daily.
Running Docker on CentOS on ESXi
The post below was written by GreenPages Enterprise Consultant Chris Williams and was published on his Mistwire blog.
Recently I’ve been playing with containers a little bit in my lab. Today I’m going to show you how to get a Docker engine running on a CentOS 7 VM running on an ESXi host. It’s surprisingly easy!
First, what is Docker? It’s an engine that lays on top of an existing host OS and basically removes the “Guest OS” abstraction layer from the mix. This is good because the Guest OS is a big resource hog when you start having several of them per host.
First, what is Docker? It’s an engine that lays on top of an existing host OS and basically removes the “Guest OS” abstraction layer from the mix. This is good because the Guest OS is a big resource hog when you start having several of them per host.
So what does this mean? Is this (potentially) bad news for VMware and Microsoft?
Short answer: yes.
Long answer: Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss*
*VMware and MS are working on projects to get in on the containery goodness, so I won’t speak about that here. Instead I’m going to walk through how to set up your first Docker engine ON CentOS ON ESXi in your existing vSphere environment.
To read the rest of Chris’ post, click here!
Looking for more information around Docker? Download this whitepaper, “10 Things to Know About Docker.”
Storage Flexibility Benefits Multitenant Environment | @CloudExpo #SDS #Cloud #Storage #DataCenter
Opus Interactive adopted a software-defined storage approach to better support its thousands of customers.
We’ll learn how scaling of customized IT infrastructure for a hosting organization in a multi-tenant environment benefits from flexibility of modern storage, unified management, and elastic hardware licensing. The result is gaining the confidence that storage supply will always meet dynamic hybrid computing demand — even in cutting-edge hosting environments.
Azure Resource Manager: The Shift from Services to Resources | @CloudExpo #IaaS #Cloud #Azure
In the first part of this series, we discussed the evolution of Azure IaaS and role of Azure Resource Manager. The next installment of the series explains the key differences between Azure Service Management (ASM) and Azure Resource Management (ARM) models. We will also take a look at key concepts and terminology related to ARM.
ASM or ARM?
One of the key tenets of cloud, especially infrastructure services, is programmability. Almost every cloud provider exposes a set of APIs to manipulate the virtual infrastructure programmatically. Even before the Cloud Computing term became a buzzword, Amazon exposed APIs for storage and compute, which eventually became the core of AWS.
Book Review: Expert T-SQL Window Functions in SQL Server | @CloudExpo #API #Cloud #TSQL #SQLServer
There is an old saying that good things come in small packages. This saying definitely applies to this book, which focuses in on a set of functions that most people are not aware of that are available in SQL Server. To start off with we need to answer the following question: What are T-SQL Window functions? These functions have nothing to do with the Microsoft Windows API. They are in essence a way to create a window into your data as you process each line in a query. Their strength lies in the ease with which you can solve tricky queries. The authors also point out that these functions don’t add any new functionality per se as you could create the queries the old way; however, in general the functions are much more efficient. One very neat capability of these functions is to allow you to include non-aggregated columns in an aggregated query, which is a big limitation with existing aggregate functions. These Window functions make it easy to calculate running totals, moving averages and more. Also starting with SQL Server 2012, you can add an order by to window aggregates to calculate running totals.